Laid important premises on Libya says Conte after conference

Palermo talks a success says Salamè

13 Novembre 2018

Palermo, November 13 - Premier Giuseppe Conte said
after a Palermo conference on Libya that "we leave Palermo
taking with us a feeling of confidence" for giving "a prospect
of stabilisation" to Libya.
He said "we mustn't delude ourselves, but important premises
have been laid in this path".
Conte shrugged off the fact that Turkey had abandoned the
conference, saying this "does not change the positive climate".
United Nations Libya envoy Ghassam Salamè thanked Italy and
Conte for organising the Libya conference, "which has been a
success".
He said "Palermo remains a milestone" in the Libyan political
process.
Salamè said there had been "a serious commitment" towards
stabilisation by all the Libyan parties.
He said "the national conference to beheld in Libya in
January will be facilitated by this conference in Palermo.
"I received the clear commitment on the part of all the
Libyan actors that will take part in it.
"And that reassures me on the possible success" of the
national conference envisaged by the UN's new road map, he said.
Conte that Italy sought to take an inclusive approach with
its conference on Libya in Palermo, with no attempt to impose
solutions from outside.
"We were keen to guarantee the full inclusiveness of all the
parties who have the stabilization and future of Libya in their
hearts.
"Furthermore, we stressed from the start how crucial it was
to have the main Libyan parties with us. We wanted to promote
this initiative in full respect of the Libyan ownership of the
process. The solutions cannot be imposed from abroad".
Italy and the international community are to back the
creation of a regular army in Libya as part of stabilisation
efforts, Conte told the conference on the north African country.
Stressing the need to overcome the current situation of
warring armed groups, he said "the international community will
be able to express concrete support for the creation and
deployment of regular security forces".
Conte added that Italy will do its part, also as regards
"technical assistance, also on the level of training".
He said "we will have to make sure that...the spirit of
Palermo, as I like to call it, will not be exhausted here and
now, but turn into a concrete commitment to bring forward the
agenda with constancy and determination".
There is a "good possibility" that a National Conference on
Libya, the first step of a UN-backed roadmap for a renewed
international effort to break a political stalemate in the
country, will be held in January, diplomatic sources said
Tuesday after a meeting in Palermo between Conte, Libyan Premier
Fayez al Sarraj and Marshal Khalifa Haftar, whose Libyan
National Army controls much of the east of the country.
The meeting took place on the sidelines of the conference for
Libya in Sicily, which was also attended by Russian Premier
Dmitri Medvedev, Egyptian President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi,
Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi, EU Council President
Donald Tusk, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian,
Algerian Premier Ahmed Ouyahia and UN envoy for Libya Ghassan
Salamè.
A photo taken after the meeting showed Conte, Sarraj and
Haftar shaking hands at Palermo's Villa Igiea.
Security and human rights were at the center of the meeting
Tuesday morning, diplomatic sources explained.
Libya's stability, the same sources stressed, is key for
Libya as well as for Italy, due to the risk of terrorists
infiltrating the country through migrant routes.
Speaking to a Libyan network in Palermo, Haftar said that "we
are still at war and the country needs to control its borders".
"We have borders with Tunisia, Algeria, Niger, Chad, Sudan
and Egypt and illegal migration comes from all sides", Haftar
added in the interview to 'Libya Hadath', stressing that the
phenomenon makes it easier for militants and Islamic terrorists
to cross into the country.
Meanwhile, according to diplomatic sources who attended the
meeting between Haftar and the head of the internationally
recognized Libyan government Sarraj, the strongman of Cyrenaica
reportedly said that "you don't change a horse while crossing a
river".
He was reportedly referring to the fact that Sarraj can lead
the government until elections are held in the country, the same
sources said.
Libyan television Al Hadath later tweeted that Haftar left
Palermo at the end of the meeting of leaders in Palermo, which
took place on the sidelines of the conference on Libya, and
"lasted over two hours", Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail
Bogdanov was quoted as saying by Tass news agency.